Call for AbstractsAs a consequence of the Shrinking Cities phenomenon, researchers and practitioners are increasingly exploring the concept and promise of an Expanding Landscape within cities. This expanding landscape includes the patchwork of abandoned, vacant, or underutilised properties that are just one consequence of depopulation. This unintended “production” of voids can be considered an opportunity with multiple modes of expression.

We invite abstracts for papers from researchers and practitioners from a broad range of disciplines, including, but not limited to, landscape architecture, urban design, planning, economics, sociology, anthropology, and environmental aesthetics. We expect papers and presentations on topics covering urban morphology, open-space planning and design, green infrastructure and sustainability, socio-economic drivers and solutions, political and regulatory factors and mechanisms, perception and aesthetic appreciation, case studies and design propositions, and more. We welcome submissions using any qualitative and quantitative research method, including historical, descriptive, and projective approaches.

Abstracts will be double-blind peer reviewed. Abstracts will be selected for further development as papers to be presented at the conference. Papers shall be 3,000 words maximum. Further paper submission requirements will be distributed to the authors of selected abstracts. Abstracts should arrive no later than Monday, April 1, 2013.

Please note the following guidelines for abstract submission:

Please use the conference abstract submission template form (found on our website)

Complete both pages of the form (the abstract may continue onto a third page)

The information on page 2 (and thereafter) should be anonymous

The abstract itself shall be 400 words maximum

Save the form as a PDF file, and name the PDF with the title of the abstract.

Karina Pallagst, Department of International Planning Systems, Kaiserslautern UniversityAli Madanipour, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle UniversityAnna Jorgensen, Department of Landscape, The University of Sheffield.